suspension raising/lowering itself

[thefunnyman]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been noticing something quirky with my Macan 4’s air suspension and wanted to see if anyone else has experienced the same thing.

Sometimes when I get in and am about to start driving, or even sit at a stoplight, it feels like the car is lifting itself up a little. Other times, it seems to settle back down. Leaving a friends house the other day he's like "dude why is your car moving" while we were talking with me in the driver's seat and him standing next to the car.

It doesn’t happen every time, and I haven’t seen any warnings or errors, so I’m assuming it’s just part of the way the system works. Still, I thought I’d ask the community:

Have you noticed your Macan adjusting height at unexpected times?

Is that just the suspension doing its thing behind the scenes, or is it something worth asking the dealer about?

I’m not worried, just curious — and I figured if anyone would know, it’d be folks here who are living with it every day.

Today Porsche picked up my car to 'take a look at' my laundry list of issues that most of us seem to have (red/yellow rings with errors, muted audio, etc, etc) but this was the only one on the list that I could not find on this site after much searching over the past several months.

Thanks in advance for any insights, stories, or reassurance!

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[PrudentOcean]

Yes, I have experienced that. It’s the air suspension leveling the car if the load changes or you’re on an uneven surface.

Totally normal.

 

[thefunnyman]

Thanks for the super quick response!

The problem is that I feel it when I am in my garage, which is a 20-year-old relatively new construction super flat surface.

I guess I’ve never put a level on the ground in there, but I’ve done some woodworking and other things and it’s completely flat

That said- that one time with my friend in the driveway was certainly on an incline, not steep, but definitely not flat

 

[PrudentOcean]

The other time that the level will change is if you were in a drive mode other than Normal when you parked.

The car will always start up in Normal mode and therefore may have to raise the suspension.

 

[thefunnyman]

I’ve had the car for about nine months and I’ve put about 8000 miles on it. 99.999% of the time I am in normal mode with the ride height set to the lowest setting. “Low”

Whenever I use sport, plus I usually take it out of that mode because it’s so aggressive. I don’t enjoy driving around the streets of Cleveland Ohio like I’m in a Honda with chopped springs lol

I feel like there’s definitely an issue here but so strange that no one else has posted about it I feel like I have every single one of the problems that people post about lol

 

[sor]

I’ve had a few cars with air suspension and they all do this, but usually in response to stopping at a light or something. For example even in normal drive mode the car will lower for efficiency at certain speeds, and then raise when you come to a stop. Of course if you change drive modes it will change its stance as well, and since the drive mode resets when you start the car it can raise if you were previously in a sport mode. Or it can raise when you come in for a stop like it does at street lights.

 

[strwbryfruitcake]

same here, sometimes in drive-thru and stuff. car will go up or down, and when on freeway it drops to the lowest setting it seems, and raises back up when u get to surface streets.

 

[dbsb3233]

In Normal drive mode, the car will raise and lower itself as speed changes to improve aerodynamics. Assuming you start off in normal height (let's call that 0), it will drop to -1 somewhere around 50-60 MPH, then to -2 somewhere around 75-80. And do the opposite as you slow down. But that's different than what you're describing at a stop.

It's possible you turned on SmartLift and set a save location for home to raise the car there (to +1), if that seems to fit what you're seeing. I guess the intent is to make it easier to get cargo in and out of the back? But I find it's just the opposite for getting me in/out. I normally like taller vehicles but the seats are awkwardly set back further from the door still in this car than most, making it harder to reach (even for me at 6'1"). We find it actually easier to get in/out when the car is lower.

 

[sor]

Generally when my car lowers at speed, it won’t raise again until I slow significantly, and usually that’s when I come to a stop. The thresholds for when it lowers seem to be different from when it raises (just like the spoiler diagram). All of my cars with air suspension have done this (iX, etron, EX90), you come off the freeway or stop at a light on a highway and you feel it lift.

 

[sor]

Someone shared this on an etron forum. It’s a bit complicated but you can see how the etron will lower after a certain amount of time at a specific speed threshold, and then raise again at a lower threshold, but only if it remains below the threshold for a specific amount of time.

so for example in comfort drive mode it will lower if it is above 120kph for 30s, but it won’t raise unless it drops below 70kph for more than 120s, or below 5kph it immediately raises. That probably accounts for the delay we see in raising when coming off the freeway or at a stop light.

in short, yes the car does some automatic raising and lowering, and it is complicated so don’t worry too much about it

https://www.e-tronforum.com/attachm...mat=pjgp&height=1920&optimize=high&width=1920

 

[thefunnyman]

Someone shared this on an etron forum. It’s a bit complicated but you can see how the etron will lower after a certain amount of time at a specific speed threshold, and then raise again at a lower threshold, but only if it remains below the threshold for a specific amount of time.

so for example in comfort drive mode it will lower if it is above 120kph for 30s, but it won’t raise unless it drops below 70kph for more than 120s, or below 5kph it immediately raises. That probably accounts for the delay we see in raising when coming off the freeway or at a stop light.

in short, yes the car does some automatic raising and lowering, and it is complicated so don’t worry too much about it

https://www.e-tronforum.com/attachm...mat=pjgp&height=1920&optimize=high&width=1920

This is awesome! I love data.

But it doesn't explain how when My car is off for several hours (12-24+), in my perfectly flat garage parked in normal mode with the suspension set to the lowest possible setting that *sometimes* (not often) when I get in it adjusts it's height randomly - sometimes it ends up back at "low" before I back out and others I'm in a hurry and it's still moving.

 

[sor]

Yeah not sure on that one, the closest behavior I have seen is when I pull into the garage in sport and turn it off, the car stays low until I start it again and it raises for the default “normal”. It’s also possible that the car is just recalibrating, for example if the suspension has changed at all during idle (lost pressure or whatever).

 

[nadkoolio]

It's possible you turned on SmartLift and set a save location for home to raise the car there (to +1), if that seems to fit what you're seeing. I guess the intent is to make it easier to get cargo in and out of the back? But I find it's just the opposite for getting me in/out. I normally like taller vehicles but the seats are awkwardly set back further from the door still in this car than most, making it harder to reach (even for me at 6'1"). We find it actually easier to get in/out when the car is lower.

Smarlift is intended to be used to raise the car to go over speedbumps and garage inclines without the front spoiler hitting the ground.

For unloading/loading cargo there is a button in the trunk to lower the car to make this easier.

For getting in/out you can set a seat position different from your driving position that makes it easier.

 

[thefunnyman]

Yeah not sure on that one, the closest behavior I have seen is when I pull into the garage in sport and turn it off, the car stays low until I start it again and it raises for the default “normal”. It’s also possible that the car is just recalibrating, for example if the suspension has changed at all during idle (lost pressure or whatever).

RECALIBRATION - this tracks, maybe! I've thought the whole time that the main issue with the technology in this vehicle is that it is more fluid than it is ephemeral - I feel like so many settings are re-applied every time I 'boot it up' instead of being baked in when I last made a change.

I will say that as much as I want to hate this car - I'm driving the petrol base macan (2025) the past few days while they look at my EV - and i'm NOT happy with it. If it was at least an S with some actual power i'd be happy to have the vibrations of a petrol engine again for a bit - but with the 2.slow, I'll pass

Next week I'm traveling for work and I have have little faith that my Macan 4 EV will get me there without issue.

Thanks everyone for your input on this - great forum with human participants!

 

[dbsb3233]

For getting in/out you can set a seat position different from your driving position that makes it easier.

But not to slide it closer to the door. That's the difficulty in the Macan, where legs have to reach outward further. The seats in the Macan are a full 11" inward from the door sill. In our other vehicles it's 7-8". I know 3-4" doesn't sound like a lot but combined with the steeper seat bolstering, it makes it such that our legs have to angle more to reach out and down to the ground. It's not horrible, just more awkward than normal (old age isn't helping either ).

I'm not that fond of the automatic seat exit function either because the seat has to go back quite a bit in order to do down. Sometimes I have stuff sitting on the floor behind the driver seat.

First world problems, I suppose.

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